Thursday, June 26, 2014

The Applique Quilt

I find the most difficult
piece to determine a quilt plan for is the applique quilt. First of
all, I've never been good at the outline stitch that everyone thinks
must surround each and every applique piece. Actually, very few
quilters are good at it. In my humble opinion, you should never see
this stitch. You should only see the effect
of this stitch. That is, the outline stitch should cause the applique
piece to appear to rise up and sit atop the quilt.

Too often I see quilts
where the outline stitch has occasionally crept up onto the applique
fabric. This is not a good look, and if it were me, I would have to
stop, pick it out and stitch it again. Wow, that's not your average
picking job either, because the stitches are usually very tiny.

So, I always suggest
filling the background with a dense fill that comes up close to the
applique pieces instead of outlining. But, what kind of dense fill?
McTavishing (with it's many variations) is an awesome choice. You can
sweep it's many tendrils into the space between the applique for a
very good look.

But, what else will work?
Let's look at a few other fills.

This continuous curl works
well on this House and Fruit Tree quilt, don't you think? The
background areas are not too tight to fit the curls in. However, some
applique quilts have very tiny background spaces, and this might not
work for them.

If you look at this design
closely, you will see the secret to it. It is not just one curl after
another, that would look too static. Instead, it curls off in one
direction, backtracks and then goes off in another direction. That
keeps the design dancing!

Perfect backtracking is
not necessary for this design, and that actually adds to the
happiness of its design.

This is the clam shell
version of McTavishing. It worked very well to get into tiny little
spaces.

Of course, pebbles can do
a good job filling areas and I like it with the stipple to set a
space apart.

This is called Swirl
Doodle Fill (I think it was designed by Karen Marchetti...?) and I
love it! The soft S shapes can fill in the teeniest spaces. And, it
is fairly quick to do. So, go out there and try a new fill pattern!!!

“I've
learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget
what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”